FRIDAY TRAINING CAMP NOTEBOOK: HAVE THE CHIEFS FINALLY REPLACED TYREEK HILL?

It’s been more than two years since the Kansas City Chiefs traded wide receiver Tyreek Hill to the Miami Dolphins. At the time, it almost seemed impossible to imagine that the team’s offense could continue to be successful without him.

But the following season, quarterback Patrick Mahomes won his second MVP award after leading the league with 5,250 yards, 41 passing touchdowns and a QBR of 79.0. The Kansas City offense led the league in both scoring and yards (which it had done only once during the four years Mahomes and Hill played together) by spreading the ball around more effectively.

In 2018 — Hill’s most productive season in Kansas City — Mahomes’ top three targets (Hill, tight end Travis Kelce and wideout Sammy Watkins) registered 3,334 receiving yards, which represented 67% of his 5,097 yards that year. That also led the league. But in 2022, Kelce and wide receivers JuJu Smith-Schuster and Marquez Valdes-Scantling were the top three receivers, catching passes totaling just 2,958 yards, That accounted for only 56% of Mahomes’ passing yards.

So in 2022, the Chiefs proved they didn’t have to replace Hill. They could still field an elite offense without him.

But then another problem appeared.

In 2023, Mahomes spread the ball around just as effectively; his top three pass-catchers (rookie wideout Rahsee Rice, Kelce and wide receiver Justin Watson) were responsible for 57% of Mahomes’ yardage. Still, the quarterback averaged just 261.4 yards per game. For Mahomes, that was a career-low as a starter.

The problem was simple: the team’s deep passing game had virtually disappeared. In 2018, Mahomes’ pass attempts traveled an average of 9.1 yards beyond the line of scrimmage. By 2022, that had fallen to 7.2 yards. In 2023, it was 6.5 yards — the league’s third-worst figure.

So the Chiefs signed free-agent wide receiver Hollywood Brown and used their first-round draft pick to acquire the player with the fastest 40-yard dash in NFL Combine history: wideout Xavier Worthy. Both have made very impressive deep plays during this week’s unpadded practices. But in Friday’s opening padded practice — the defensive unit’s first opportunity to eat after weeks and weeks of avoiding tackling the opposing players — things didn’t go as well.

But that didn’t discourage Mahomes.

“It’s getting better and better,” Mahomes assured reporters after practice. “Obviously, we missed on some today. We’ve hit on some earlier in camp. But that’s what we’re doing it for. We’re out here to practice, trying to shoot the ball down the field, by going against one of the — if not the — best defenses in the National Football League with [defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo] and them. I think guys have done a great job of building. We’ll continue to get better and better [at] building [our] chemistry as the camp goes on.”

Going into 2022, Mahomes didn’t believe the team needed to replace Hill. And he still doesn’t.

“I think we’ve got a lot of explosive guys; there are a lot of different guys that are going to have big games,” he noted — just as he did before the 2022 season. “But it’s going to be the same few guys that are going to be those lead candidates — with other guys that will step in and make plays happen. Obviously we’ve got Trav. Rashee’s gonna be another guy that works over the middle — and I think Hollywood’s going to do a great job of that. And then obviously with Xavier, I think as the season goes on, he’s gonna get even better and better. You can already see the talent; I mean, you all saw the catch that went viral. But just running routes and doing all different types of stuff? He’s another guy that’s not just a speed guy, but someone that plays tough [and] runs great routes.

“[General manager Brett] Veach did a great job of getting a lot of great receivers in there. I think it’s going to be hard for teams to kind of game plan one guy, because we have a lot of guys that can go out there and have big games.”

Will the team’s newest wideouts return the team to the offensive dominance it had in 2018 and 2022? We can’t say for sure. But according to Mahomes, the pieces to do it are now in place.

Injury report

Returned to practice: WR Xavier Worthy (illness) and CB Nazeeh Johnson (knee)
Left practice early: None
Out of practice (due to injury): WR Justin Watson (foot) (since 7/24)
Non-football injury (NFI) list: S Justin Reid (out with quad since 7/21), DL BJ Thompson (non-football injury since 7/21)
Physically unable to perform (PUP) list: DT Derrick Nnadi (out with triceps since 7/21), DL Charles Omenihu (out with ACL since 7/21), CB Jaylen Watson (out with labrum since 7/21), LG Joe Thuney (out with pectoral since 7/21)

Post of the day

Our John Dixon compiled all of Friday’s posts here. Here is the post of the day:

Yes... the former Kansas City Star Chiefs beat reporter Herbie Teope is back among those covering the team — this time, as an Associated Press contributor.

Quote of the day

Mahomes on the goal of the run game in 2024: “The goal is to even improve on what they did last year. I mean, we have a lot of great players on the offensive line. Obviously [we have] a great running back with Isaiah [Pacheco] and a great running back room with Clyde [Edwards-Helaire] coming in — and all this competition that we have. I think [the goal is] to improve on what we did last year; [to] keep making those steps in the right direction. Then hopefully — if we can get the pass game stretching the field downfield even more — it’ll improve the run game. That’s what’s going to make us a great offense.”

What’s next?

The Chiefs will be back at work Saturday through Monday before taking another day off on Tuesday. Just as they did during the first four days of unpadded full practices, they’ll be ramping up the length of the padded workouts. On Friday, practice lasted an hour and 40 minutes. It will be a little longer on each successive day.

All of these workouts will begin at 9:15 a.m. Arrowhead Time. Saturday is the annual Family Fun Day. Special teams coordinator Dave Toub will speak with reporters following practice as the whole team signs autographs. Here’s the complete 2024 training camp schedule.

2024-07-26T20:54:56Z dg43tfdfdgfd